San José State men’s and women’s Rugby Club Sports held a media day meeting on Wednesday ahead of the start of 2024-25 season.
Shania Stanley, women’s Rugby team captain and third year public health student shared her excitement for the season.
“Recruiting went really well, there’s definitely a lot of talent and athleticism within each woman that has joined the team,” Stanley said. “Most of the team is new to rugby and the chemistry that has formed over the preseason even I’m excited to see that carried over into the official season.”
In the meeting, head coach and director of the club rugby James Fonda gave insight of what the roster will look like for the upcoming season.
“The last couple seasons we’ve had quite a bit of seniors graduating and moving forward…we’ve only lost two seniors this year,” Fonda said.
In their previous season, women’s rugby won the national championship in the 2021-22 season.
In the same season, the Spartans managed to win every game making them 5-0 at the end of the season, according to their web page.
“I think we’re going to be pretty strong leadership wise and talent wise on the team,” Fonda said. “We had that in 2022 when we won the national championship.We are on our way up from rebuilding from that era and are on a good pathway.”
Zach Tabangcura the men's rugby team captain and fourth year kinesiology student felt there were a lot of obstacles and challenges during preseason.
“Our biggest challenge for us, teaching players, the rules and how we can operate as a full 15 (player) squad,” Tabangcura said.
The men’s Rugby team went undefeated last season making it the first season the Spartans went undefeated since the 1980’s according to a March 14, 2024 Instagram post.
In the same season the Spartans had their highest score differential with the final score being 72-3 against San Francisco State University.
“One thing I’ve been preaching all year is whatever you do on the field you also carry off the field and if all 15 guys, or all 45 guys on the roster stay composed,” Tabangcura said. “They’re trustworthy, they’re showing up everyday, that's a team I want to play with consistently.”
The men’s rugby head coach Nick Schlobohm highlighted that two-thirds of the roster are new to rugby or played a season or less of rugby.
“You have a lot of youth, a lot of passion,” Schlobohm said. “I think it’s a great place we’re in just as the women’s team, we’re in this position to kind of coach this new team that’ll be here for four years.”
The Spartans first game of the season takes place this Saturday at home against Cal Poly Humboldt.
